The invention relates generally to automated systems with high-throughput cassettes, for processing complex biological materials into subcomponents.
Many conventional blood cell isolation procedures require preliminary red blood cell depletion and sample volume reduction. These are commonly required processing steps for long-term cell banking and regenerative medicine applications where a maximal yield of rare cells is desired in a reduced volume due to storage limitations and/or the small volume requirements needed for direct transplantation. Today, the most common techniques for processing blood-cell containing samples (e.g. cord blood, bone marrow, peripheral blood) involve density-gradient sedimentation using centrifugation with or without the use of a density-gradient media to improve separations. Automated centrifugal based systems have recently been developed for closed-system processing of cord blood and bone marrow samples in order to meet the growing needs for high-throughput sample processing. While greatly improving throughput compared to manual techniques, centrifugation-based devices have limited flexibility and portability due to the weight and fixed physical dimensions of the centrifuge bucket.
These techniques and devices are also associated with low sample throughput and tedious manual operation. The current centrifuge based systems require labor-intensive pre-processing set-up. For example, the operator must route or otherwise load the tubing and position parts in a very confined space within the centrifuge-based device. This approach tends to result in sample leakage and device failure due to kinked tubing and improper installation.